Deutsche Telekom Expands FTTH Network In Germany

Deutsche Telekom is expanding its pilot project for FTTH expansion (fiber to the home). In the next three months, around 30 percent of households in each of the scheduled expansion areas are expected to sign up for a fiber-optic plan. Customers who do so during the pre-marketing phase do not have to pay a home connection fee.

Deutsche Telekom will be using trenching for the expansion process. Trenching removes the need to dig open trenches to install fiber-optic cables. Instead, narrow grooves are milled into the road/sidewalk surface. Trenching is around eight times faster and up to 30 percent cheaper than the conventional method. After the expansion, Internet connections up to 1 Gbit/s will be available in these areas. In Bad Staffelstein, 3,000 households stand to benefit from the expansion, in Bruchsal 3,500, in Hildburghausen 6,300 and in Markkleeberg 1,600. All the expansion projects are due to be completed by the start of 2019 at the latest.

The Deutsche Telekom network in numbers
In 2018, Deutsche Telekom is planning to lay 60,000 kilometers of optical fiber. By way of comparison, the figure for 2017 was 40,000. The Deutsche Telekom fiber-optic network covers over 455,000 kilometers in total, making it the largest in Europe. It would go around the Earth more than ten times. Installing one kilometer of fiber-optic cable costs between 50,000 and 150,000 euros. Each year, Deutsche Telekom invests around five billion euros in Germany.

The telco is also focusing on the vectoring technology. The telco announced that an additional 309,000 households in 302 cities and communities can now connect to the Internet with up to 100 Mbps download and 40 Mbps upload. The cities receiving the new service include Freiburg (6,100 households), Langen (13,000 households) and Neunkirchen (6,700 households). Deutsche Telekom’s goal is to supply as many people as possible with fast Internet lines – in both cities and rural areas.

“We aren’t only building information superhighways between major metropolises and population centers; our network also extends to the countryside. We build broadband: With billions for millions. We are the only company pursuing comprehensive broadband expansion,” says Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. “Some of our upgrade projects serve tens of thousands of households, while others serve just a handful. For us, every line counts. In Dießen, Haßloch, and Regenstauf, but also in Röhrmoos, Taucha and Willebadessen. No other company is investing as much in broadband expansion in rural areas as Deutsche Telekom.